The present invention relates to an improvement in coin dispensers which are adapted to discharge coins at a high rate.
As is well known in the art, automatic vending machines, money exchanging machines, coin- or token-operated amusement machines such as slot machines, etc. have a coin or token (hereinafter referred to as coins) dispenser therein which is adapted to discharge coins into a pay-out outlet.
Such a coin dispenser usually includes a motor-driven rotary disk placed beneath a bucket which stores therein a number of coins to be discharged, the rotary disk being rotated having a substantially horizontal rotary plane. This coin dispenser is so designed that coins are supplied from an opening at a lower portion of the bucket at a high rate due to centrifugal force caused by rotation of the rotary disk. Between the opening at the lower portion of the bucket and the rotary disk, there is provided a regulating plate which is adapted to rotate independently of the rotary disk, so that the weight of coins stored within the bucket will not be directly imposed on the rotary disk. Due to the foregoing arrangement, rotation of the rotary disk is further facilitated, thereby greatly to improve the coin pay-out performance.
The above-mentioned conventional coin dispenser using a rotary disk is required to stop suddenly the driving of the rotary disk at the time when a coin pay-out stop signal is issued. However, since the rotary disk which is employed in the conventional coin dispenser is large in inertial mass, even if the drive motor is electrically stopped by issuance of the coin pay-out stop signal, the inertia of the rotary disk is imposed on the motor as a heavy load. Such a load tends to overheat the motor, which greatly shortens the service life of the motor.